Jamin Bradley

Supernatural healing is complicated because it revolves around a realm we can’t fully see or understand. That being said, when you pray for healing and it doesn’t happen, there are a few things to take into account:

Supernatural Sickness VS Natural Sickness

Some people are naturally sick, while others are supernaturally sick. For example, it’s not uncommon when I’m doing an exorcism that the person I’m working with gets a sudden migraine. When these moments arise, I tell the demon to cut it out and the migraine leaves just as soon as it started. What they’ve experienced in that moment is me dealing with the spiritual root of their sickness. The same thing does not happen when I tell a natural migraine to go away. Every demon is dealt with differently, but they typically come out after enough inner healing sessions. Through exorcism, I’ve seen people healed from both physical and mental health issues. To be absolutely clear, all sickness is NOT demonic—but when it is, you have to deal with it at its spiritual root.

Spiritual Warfare

Just because you weren’t healed when someone prayed doesn’t mean God didn’t want it to happen. Daniel once made a request to God, and an angel was dispatched to him immediately, but he didn’t show up for 3 weeks because he got caught up in spiritual warfare along the way.

There Are “Gifts” of Healing

While I’m used to praying for people to be healed from any sickness (sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t), the Bible talks about “gifts of healing” in the plural. While we should pray for any sickness that comes our way, one possible interpretation of this statement is that different people may be anointed to heal different kinds of sicknesses.

The Gift of Healing May Be Reserved

I sense that the gift of healing is one of the greater spiritual gifts and that God discerns carefully who he can trust with it. Look at Jesus: His healing gift caused massive crowds to constantly gather around him until they nearly crushed him. They wouldn’t stop touching him while he was walking. People cut holes in roofs to get to him. Jesus often asked people not to talk about their miracle in order to keep the crowds away so he could do other important works, but everyone always blabbed about it, creating an instant crowd. A powerful gift of healing tends to bring about a crowd, so such a gift must be carefully delegated.

Faith is Not a Meter You Fill Up

Faith is important to healing because it gets you to go to the feet of Jesus. The people in Jesus’ hometown had no faith in him so they ignored him while he was in town. Jesus hoped to heal more of them, but was unable to get his way because they wouldn’t receive him. Faith is not a meter that you have to fill up in order to be healed. Faith is the object upon which your healing rests. My feet were in pain once and I made a joke of a prayer to God about how he could heal them and the pain immediately left. In that moment I had zero percent faith that I would be healed, but a hundred percent faith that he could heal. That mustard seed amount of faith was enough for the miracle. 

One of my jobs is pastoring a church of adults with disability. While I’m happy to pray for anyone who wants it, my disabled friends are perfect just as they are. They do not need to be healed in order to be loved or accepted. In their disability, they have much to teach me, just as my wounded savior does. Indeed, most of them are the most joyful people I know. Our value is not found in our healing—it’s found in God’s great love for us and our identity as the image of God. We would all do well to learn from the tension of health and sickness that this world gives us as we pray for healing and care for the sick around us, even when the healing doesn’t come.